IKEA has got Winnipeg’s back

The other day, Gary Doer was talking about how Winnipeg has changed since the NHL packed up and left for Arizona 15 years ago. So, naturally the former Manitoba premier mentioned the construction of the MTS Centre, the strength of the Canadian dollar, and the fact that the city is getting … an IKEA store?

Laugh all you want, he said, but the emergence of the Swedish furniture giant, which is expected to open within the next two years, is a telltale sign that the city has experienced economic growth. At the very least, it should make the desolate city a little more attractive to players from Scandinavia.

“We only build 20 stores worldwide every year,” Madeleine Lowenborg-Frick, IKEA’s public relations manager, told the Winnipeg Free Press in 2008. “Contrary to what some have maintained, we firmly believe Winnipeg can support one of our largest stores in Canada. We really do our homework to determine the sustainability and viability of our markets.”
Yes, IKEA believes in Winnipeg. Apparently, so does the NHL, which could be days away from announcing the city will be the new home of the Atlanta Thrashers.

The question is how much has really changed since the last time the NHL was here?

Sure, the population and average income has increased, while the rate of unemployment has decreased since 1996. But this is still the same place that the average American likely would not be able to locate on a map, and a place the rest of Canada calls Winterpeg for its harsh climate.

“There’s always naysayers,” said Bob Brennan, president and CEO of Manitoba Hydro. “But they’re the people who say no to anything. I think you’ll find the community’s behind it.”

All of Canada seems to be behind the NHL returning north of the border. The reasons are rooted in emotion. This is our game, Canadians say. It does not matter that the NHL failed here before or that going back to Winnipeg would essentially be a step backward for the league, in terms of popularizing the game on a global scale.

No, all that matters is that Canada — not Kansas City or Las Vegas — gets another team.

What happens if and when the Canadian dollar dips again? What happens when the current CBA gets restructured and players are earning more? What happens when the Jets or the Moose or whatever they will be called miss the playoffs year after year, as the Thrashers have?

Well, not many want to focus on the negatives. Not with mayor Sam Katz leading a conga line through downtown Winnipeg.

“It’s hard to say when you’re in the middle of the euphoria what it’s going to be like five years from now,” said a prominent Winnipeg businessman, who requested anonymity.

“Look, I obviously want to see a team. But you’re sort of at a perfect moment for a team to come back to Winnipeg right now, because of all of the factors — the current CBA, the economy, the dollar and all that stuff. But if history is any indicator, the dollar will go down and other places will grow faster, because Winnipeg, at best, is a slow-growth place. And I don’t know if there’s ever been an era where players have been paid less.

“You’ve got a snapshot now, but you’ve got to be very, very careful of what that picture looks like in five years.”

In five years, we could be transported back to the 1996, when the arena was woefully small, NHL salaries had risen significantly, and the Canadian dollar was worth 73 cents to the American dollar.

As it stands right now, Winnipeg already has its challenges.

Ilya Bryzgalov, a big-name free-agent goaltender, has stated that he has no intention of playing in a city where there is “no excitement except the hockey.” The MTS Centre, which opened in 2004 and where the American League’s Manitoba Moose currently play, would be the smallest NHL arena (more than 1,200 seats less than the New York Islanders’ Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum).

“Everyone assumes Winnipeg is without risks,” said a league source. “It’s not. It would be the smallest market we’re in, the smallest building we’re in. Everyone’s sentimental. We need more Canadian teams. I think it will be a disaster if we go back in a Canadian market and it fails.”

Fail is not in Winnipeg’s vocabulary right now. This is a city that has regretted the loss of the NHL for the past 15 years, so you have to believe that the community will do everything in its power to ensure that hockey remains a success.